Italy and Greece - 2000

[riverdees05]

My wife, two daughters, four grandchildren and one son-in-law are planning to go to Italy and Greece in July 2009, any recommendations? They will be first time travelers there.

[rklein001]

For Greece, I'd suggest a short stay in Athens and then an island or two.

Athens is a hot, busy city but the Acropolis, the Plaka (market) at night and the National Archeological Museum can't be missed.

For islands, Santorini is the most beautiful but doesn't have the best beaches. The usual choice is to split time between Santorini and Mykonos, which are a short ferry ride apart and can be reached from Athens by a short flight or a fairly long ferry trip.

For Italy, when choosing among the usual suspects, don't forget it's going to be HOT.

Edited to add:
Crete has wonderful cities and beaches, but it's not suited to a casual visit.

It's more than 150 miles east-to-west, and there's a spine of mountains that you need to cross to get from north-to-south.

[CarlK]

I agree with the suggestions made, and depending on how long you plan to vacation, we also really enjoyed spending a week on Crete. Can't tell you much about Italy at this point, we will be in Rome, Florence, Venice and Assisi next month.

[Jimster]

Do not drive in Greece and only in non-urban Italy. They have some of the highest death tolls per capita in Europe.

[Talent312]

I've been to Italy 3x and went to Greece last year.
ITALY --
Take trains. You can get a pass, but IMHO, point to point tickets are a better value. Visit www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html Train stations are generally in the center of towns and convenient to hotels by foot or taxi. A first time visitor should see the big three -- Rome, Florence and Venice. If you have enuff time, rent a car (outside Rome) or book a tour to visit the hill towns of Tuscany (esp. Siena, San Gimigano), the Northern lakes, and Pompeii (near Naples). With even more time or your 2nd trip, visit the Amalfi Coast and Capri.

GREECE -- Here's what we did in 10 days...
After a weekend wine festival in Germany, we flew direct to Santorini with pre-booked transfers and a boat tour. After a few nights, we took a fast-ferry to Mykonos (3-hours). Mykonos is arid.. nice beaches, but no trees, 'cept what your resort plants. Spent most of our time relaxing at our resort. In hindsight, I would've gone to Crete or spent more time on the mainland. We took a short flight to Athens. Took the subway from the airport. Subways are easy to navigate with signage in both Greek+English, and taxis are plentiful and cheap. Did the Acropolis, the Plaka, took a day tour to Delphi, watched changing of the guard at the palace and spent some time in the national gardens.

Enjoy.

[lprstn]

What about Cruising to these areas? I was planning on going with my kids in 2 years but wondered if cruising would be best.

[Talent312]

Originally Posted by lprstn

What about Cruising to these areas? I was planning on going with my kids in 2 years but wondered if cruising would be best.

IMHO, cruising is not appropriate visiting interior-Italy (Florence/Tuscanny/Umbria) or mainland Greece, but well suited for brief visits to Greek and other Eastern Med islands.

I'd avoid those leaving out of Athens (Pireaus) which only give you a few evening hours on Santorini (yuck). We would've booked a cruise last year, but did not find an itinerrary that met our objectives in the time we had. So we flew and ferried.

[hibbeln]

I'm in the midst of planning a trip to Greece for Easter of next year (2009). Myself and husband, 2 boys (then will be "almost 14" and 11 1/2 - gosh, how did they get so old so fast?), plus Grandma (she'll be around 74?).

We're going to go to Santorini first. Spend probably 3 full days there and leave on the 4th. Basically do some relaxing and exploring, boat tour, soak up the ambience and shake off our jetlag and eat really well and practice our guidebook-Greek.

Then we'll fly back to Athens and pick up a car and drive to the Peloponesse Peninsula (I know I'm still spelling that wrong) where it looks like we will be based in Nauplion/Nafplio for touring (Corinth, Epidavros, Olympia, etc etc). I think we might spend 4-5 days there and then head back to Athens. Drop the car and spend 2 nights in the Plaka area of Athens to be right in the thick of it. See the sights (yep, more ruins) and soak up the atmosphere and then fly home. The last weekend we will be in Athens will be Greek Easter, so that should be fun!

We went to Italy several years back as the kids' "first trip to Europe" (the oldest went as a toddler with us to Germany/Austria, but we won't count that). I think at that point they must have been 6 and 8. We stayed in Rome first for probably 4 nights, 3 full days. Covered a LOT of ground! Where you stay really matters. As a backpacker umpteen million years ago I stayed near the train station and despised Rome. Dirty, grungy, yucky. This time we stayed in a flat near the Piazza Navona and we were all (from the 6 year old on up) completely charmed by Rome! We took the train to Pompeii which was a huge thrill for my boys and one of the most interesting places I've ever been and then caught a plane from Naples to Sicily (all in one day....woke up in Rome, visited Pompeii, went to bed that night in Sicily). Sicily was the main point of the itinerary because of family ties, visiting relatives, etc. But you can do Pompeii as a daytrip from Rome on the train.

Italy is an easy country to travel in with young kids because the food is so accessible for them. When in doubt....pizza and pasta, bread and gelato!

Other people have told me to really think twice about taking kids to Florence during the high season. They said while the museums are great, the lines are truly horrendous. Kids tend to lose their interest in art rapidly if they first have to stand in line for 2 hours in the hot sun.

Actually, totally off the subject, but the best "art museum" vacation we ever took the kids on was a week trip in February to Paris. That's really low season, the weather is cold, so nice warm museums are great to be in....and no crowds and no lines! We saw every kind of art from ancient to modern and had a ball doing it with no pressure from hordes of other tourists!